Many, Many, Thanks to all of you who helped contributed to,  and supported our seminar !! 
I think it was a success, I enjoyed it and have heard many good things about it. 

The speakers were knowledgeable and very entertaining. We may have to have them again!!

Lyn Shelley and her committee - Iris Beideger, Sharon Jones, Almarene Moore, Ann Sadler, & Joanne Scarborough deserve a LONG round of applause from all of us. 

Also, those guys whose help we cannot do without...... Roger Scarborough, Bill Ashby, 'Mac' McCleod. Wayne Steidley, Norman Jones and our new member Al Breton !! 
You guys came through in the clutch, setting up and taking down the room. Roger & Bill providing the breakfast and snack refreshments. Bill and Wayne taking photos.

Our irreplaceable Frances Garwood, as usual, was our stalwart at the refreshment table. Frances, you are our precious commodity!

To all of you that donated door prizes, I never knew how many or exactly who. But, to all of you.. thanks so very much!!

Congratulations to Ann who won the Edgar Florist beautiful table arrangement. They donated that to us and I hope you all will thank them if you can or have occasion to use their floral services. They do beautiful work. This is not the first time they have donated flowers for our seminars.

Joanne was laid up with hip surgery and still put out some fantastic publicity on the seminar!!
Barbara Madden, made our name badges. Ann got all those forms that were handed out as favors, printed up and everyone pitched in and put all the 'goodies' together.

 If I've left anyone out, please tell me. My 'rememberer' doesn't always work!

Please come to the meeting and support us and her by your presence. She is always so generous with her time and knowledge.
 

Judy Humphreys one of our librarians in Kingsland, has a book that has many family names in the area of Macon Co., NC.
It is a county history cook done by Hunter Publications, in Winston-Salem, NC. The name of the book is:
"THE HERITAGE OF MACON COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA" - compiled by Jessie Sutton and the Macon Co. Heritage Soc. - 1987

 Macon was created from Heywood Co. which was Indian land for a long time and where some of the Eastern tribe of Cherokee hid during the Trail of Tears. It is on the Western border of North Carolina and deep in the Appalachian Mtns.

There were "free people of color" there in the early days that had earned their freedom by either serving in the Rev. War or by working their indenture off in the days before slavery became legal (1715)
Of course, many "free people of color" were Native American and some of them intermarried eventually with the free Black and White people.

I will post some of the names from the index here so that you may see if yours are among them. 
If you think some of them are yours, then let Judy know, she is willing to let you see the book and she can make copies of the  pertinent pages, in the book (it is out of print) 

She is descended from Plikard Siler of Siler City NC (Chatham Co.) and some of her other names are Harrison, Gillespie, Davis, Higdon..Some of these people eventually came to Texas. 
Other names in the book (this will not be all of them, just some of the ones with more pages.
Addington, Allen, Ammons, Anderson, Angel, Ashe, Baldwin, Barnard, Barnes, Bateman, Bates, Berry, Blaine, Bradley, Brown, Bryant, Bryson, Buchanan, Buckner, Burch & Burnett. 
I will list more next time.

Petition for Naturalization : by Alexander Adams Anderson, in the District Court of Llano Co., TX

Occupation: Granite Cutter
Born 11 Sept. 1888 in Aberdeen, Scotland
Emigrated to the United States from Glasgow, Scotland on 17th April, 1909.
Arrived at the port of Boston, on the vessel "Hesperian"

Declared intention to become a U.S. Citizen on the 25th Oct. 1913, in the District Court of Llano, TX
I am married, my wife's name is Marjorie Anderson, nee Lockaby. She was born in San Saba, TX and now resides in Llano Co. TX. 

I have one child and the name, date of birth, place of birth and residence of said child is as follows:
Elsie Anderson, born 26 March, 1915, resides at Llano, TX.

I renounce forever, all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty and particularly to George V, King of Great Britain and Ireland.
I am able to speak the English Language.

I have resided continuously, in the United States of America, for a term of five years at least, preceding the date of this petition, to wit, 29 April, 1909.
Sworn to by Alexander Adams Anderson, 29 Nov. 1915, at Llano Co. TX.
S. E. Horgan, Clerk
Witnesses:
J. W. Norton, Granite Dealer
A. M. Krause, Stone Mason
 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I Benedetto Stella, age 20 years, Stone Cutter, do declare on oath that my physical description is:
Color; White, Complexion; Dark, Height;: 5 ft., 9 inches, Weight; 158 pounds, Color of Hair; Brown; Color of Eyes; Brown, No visible distinctive marks.
I was born in Bisuschio, Italy, on the 15th day of September, 1888. I now reside at No. 99 Smith St., Barre, Vermont.
I emigrated to the United States from Havre, France on the vessel LaSavoie. My last foreign residence was Bisuschio, Italy.
It is my bona fide intention to renounce forever all  allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereign, and particularly to Victor Immanuel II, King of Italy, of whom, I am now a subject.
I arrived at the port of New York, State of New York, on or about the 16th day of July, 1906; I am not an anarchist,  I am not a polygamist or a believer in polygamy; and it is my intention in good faith to become a citizen of the United States of America and to permanently reside therein, SO HELP ME GOD.
Signed, Benedetto Stella.
Sworn and subscribed to 5  Aug. 1909
In his petition for Naturalization, he named his wife as Prudie Stella, born in Humboldt, Tenn.
He has one child, Charlie B. Stella, born in Rome, GA, Dec. 7, 1913.
(MY NOTE) 
On 15 May, 1916, the petition for Naturalization was withdrawn because no certificate of landing was filed with the petition and more than 90 days had elapsed after the petition was filed 
He did not speak English well, for he had an interpreter.
Don't know if he was deported or not... nothing more on this case.
 

SO WHY LOCK UP THE BIRTH RECORDS?
It seems that every week we hear of one more situation in which some politician or bureaucrat is trying to restrict access to public domain vital records. Everybody is trying to lock out everyone, including genealogist. Our right to access to public domain birth, marriage, and death information is being threatened constantly under the guise of "preventing identity theft."

Balderdash! (That's as strong a word as I will use in this family-oriented publication.)
I am sure that the politicians love the limelight back home when they can brag that they have taken action to "prevent identity theft." Heck, nobody is in favor of identity theft, right? Therefore, just proclaiming to have taken some token action under the smoke screen of "preventing identity theft" is sure to win a few more votes in the next election.
"Fact?" What facts? Don't both me with facts, I've got a re-election campaign to win."
 

Well, now a new study has provided genealogists with some hard facts. These facts should serve as pinpricks to any inflated claims of preventing something that never existed. A new survey of 4,000 consumers, about 500 of whom were identity theft victims, was recently conducted by Javelin Research and the Better Business Bureau for CheckFree, Visa, and Wells Fargo Bank. This study is based on cold, hard fact, not the rhetoric or conjecture of someone who makes pronouncements not grounded in reality.

According to the people who were victims of identity theft, here are the eight most common sources:
Lost or stolen wallet - 29%
Fraud that occurs during an in-store or telephone transaction: 12.9%
Corrupt employees: 9 %
Stolen mail: 8 %
Spyware on the computer: 5 %
Sifting through garbage: 2.6%
Computer viruses: 2.2%
"Phishing" through fraudulent e-mail: 1.7%

Take a close look at the above. Please note the rating for "obtained a record from the vital records department." Do you see it? I don't.
The full report is quite lengthy. Here are a few other random facts extracted from the Better Business Bureau's announcement.

Among cases where the perpetrator's identity is known, half of all identity fraud is committed by a friend, family member, relative, neighbor or in-home employee ---- someone known by the victim!!
You can read the full report on the Better Business Bureau's web site at:
http://www.bbb.org/alerts/article.asp?ID=565.

The next time someone claims that access to public records needs to be restricted in order to 'reduce identity theft," let's ask an embarrassing question:  "Show me the Proof."  Then, in the awkward silence that follows, ask that person to read the facts as proven by the Javelin Research and the BBB report.

Here's some advice to politicians and bureaucrats: please focus on REAL issues where there is a REAL need.!!
Thanks to Peter Parkhurst who alerted Dick Eastman to this study.

MY personal note:  After hearing about all the companies that have allowed their databases to be stolen, infiltrated and gobbled up by hackers and the like, I don't think any thief, would want to go to the trouble to visit a courthouse and go through the hassle of braving a possessive county clerk to get to those 'vital records' anyway. Waaaay too much trouble!!

Also, with all the "unthinking or unaware" genealogists, that have placed their living relatives names, birth dates & places, marriage dates and locations, online. That would seem to be the easiest way to get what you want... 
Ancestry.com says that since the census cut off is 72 years, they don't have to do any less( or more.) So, if you have living relatives born before 1923, their entire vital records can be, are are being, put online. Ahh, the joys of the internet!!!